Conchas (Mexican Sweet-Topped Buns)

LOVED IT!!!! I have been wanting these for years since my favorite bakery on the West coast closed some 15 years ago and use to make these. I bought one with a cup of coffee everytime I went in... sometimes several times a week. A few changes I had to make to this recipe to suit my palette: I split the butter requirement to 1/2 butter flavored crisco and 1/2 butter. I baked them on a silpat and made the buns 1/4 the recommended size so they were dinner roll size. PERFECT. And I added 1/4 cup of cocoa, 1 tsp of vanilla, and one pack of instant espresso to the topping mix 1 TBS of water. I had to lower the oven temp to 325 degrees and bake for 11 minutes in order to keep the bottoms from over baking on my silpat, and the topping from melting off or getting too crunchy from too high of heat. The topping should not be crunchy!!! Needless to say I had to throw away the first batch due to too hot an oven, but the subsequent batches were fabulous!! Took some to the neighbors since I had too many, and they devoured them ON THE PORCH! HAHAH! Super yum. Can't wait to make them again for family. TIP ALERT: THe longer they have to do the 2nd rise the better. I baked in batches and the 3,4 and 5th batch got better and better, puffier and pillowy soft. THANKS!!!!!!!!

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AMAZING! My first time ever and they came out great. Making my second batch today and replaced the butter in the dough to lard (sounds nasty but us mexicans use it often) and i kneaded the dough a lot more. Also, the topping came out like a sticky paste..hope thats correct! i was able to spread it after dipping my fingers in a little bit of water. I got the approval of my abuelita and all my tias so this recipe was amazing. One of these with a cup of abuelitas hot chocolate and ive died and gone to heaven! Simple and amazing recipe. THANK YOU!

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O-M-G!!! These were delicious. My 16 yr old son even said they were better than the ones from the Mexican bakeries. They made our whole house smell like a bakery! I can't say enough. This recipe was easy to follow, the bread part came out so soft and light, like little pillows of goodness and my husband said he liked the topping on these better than the ones from the Mexican bakeries because it was more flavorful and wasn't as messy. I'm a baking novice. Anyone can make these.

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Simply divine! My Mexican coworkers at my last job introduced me to conchas, but it's hit and miss when purchasing them--sometimes they are good, and sometimes they are stale and dry. I am delighted to have found this recipe, and wow wow WOW are they ever amazing! I decided to make one topping almond flavored using almond extract, and that ended up being the favorite at the tasting at a party I made them for. I'm about to go visit Virginia to see all my Mexican buddies, and I just cannot wait to give them a taste of home with some freshly baked conchas! Thanks, Karen!

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A very easy and delicios recipe. They were gone as soon as I put them out. My house smelled like a bakery!

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Very good recipe. I tried a few others from breadworld.com and some other sites and they were all kind of dry. These were great. I just added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and vanilla to the dough because that is the way they use to make them in this bakery I use to go to that is now closed. I missed them and now I have the perfect recipe. Thanks

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This recipe worked wonderfully. These were beautiful and tasted great. Be careful with the sugar topping and adding too much flour. With one of the three flavors I thought it would be easier to work with with a little more flour and it just makes it more difficult. Also, it made the topping of that set very crunchy. Still good but the recipe as written is perfect. Thank you!

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This is a really excellent recipe. I tried doing exactly what the directions said, except I put everything in the breadmaker... and it turned out great. Thanks!

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I wanted to try making conchas for a course I'm taking (*grin*), and these turned out great! Thanks for posting the recipe.

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These were easy to make and tasted perfect! My grandparents gave me a bag of conchas on their return from a Mexico trip when I was a child and these took me right back to then.

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Delicious! I am so glad I finally found a good recipe for conchas! Thank you!

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Yay, I finally found a recipe for these that works for me! I tried making conchas for DH a while back, but the recipe I used was way too vague for a not-so-good bread baker (it neglected to mention that only people baking conchas in a tropical rainforest would need to use the full amount of flour specified in the recipe). Those conchas, needless to say, came out suitable for use as doorstops. These, on the other hand, warranted an "almost like mama's" from my Mexican DH (a comment not often given when I try to recreate foods he misses from his childhood). I'll definitely be making these for him again. Thanks for posting!

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I didn't read the recipe all the way through and ended up mixing the cinnamon, vanilla and orange zest all together for one flavor of topping. Even with this goof - they still turned out great!

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A lovely bun! Baboo thought it was just gorgeous tasting (especially warm out of the oven with butter). I had a little problem making the paste stick to the dough balls so the decorative cuts could be made...I think that maybe a spritz of water or egg white to aid sticking would be helpful. In any case, I did the best I could and if they weren't up to bakery appearance it didn't matter to us.

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Oh, these are good! And quite simple for such spectacular results. There is a lot of flavor and just a hint of crunch on the outside, the inside is beautifully light. Lucky me, I made a double batch, and, hopefully, there will be a few left for the freezer. I love the idea of having three different toppings, and enjoyed trying to mark them like shells - not with a lot of success, but that's not important. Each roll came to about 70 g, with 10 to 15 g topping. I flattened the topping between pieces of plastic wrap. Thank you very much for sharing this recipe with us. These are even better than the ones I can buy.

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